Morg Blargvast, a friend of the Tremtzi Val tells the coterie about great treasures and terrible power in Yucatan, Mexico. The coterie investigate.
Date in World of Darkness: Saturday 20th of September 2003
Played at: Franklin
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Subject: The proposal of the Mystery-tremere
Date: ??
Thank you for the comments on my last post. Especially the comments on the Maya’s death-culture.
The proposal of this Morg Blargvast has been discussed. The final outcome is that we’ll search for the document that describes the Wanderer’s ritual. Our search led part of the group to the Rijksmuseum
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Subject: The proposal of the Mystery-tremere
Date: ??
Now that we have discussed the proposal of Morg Blargvast and reached the conclusion that we are going to look for the document about The Wanderer, the document that stated a ritual in which blood taken of a vampire can be used by a whole group instead of an individual. Our lead is that it has something to do with the Maya’s (South-America) and that the document can be found in Amsterdam.
All members of the group take their own approach on research. Gatske begins by visiting her mentor, Battista. He has an office in the Rijksmuseum where he tells her about the America’s and other intersts of his. It starts to get interesting when he shows her a statue (about 50 cm’s high) of a god of the death that bears the name of Mictlantecuhtli. In the meanwhile Val searches in libraries in order to stay clear of al his usual contacts. It cannot be a coincidence, I guess, that he also finds the name of this god of death. In the Rijksmuseum Gatske takes the statue in her hands and is immediately overcome by something that makes its way to her soul. She is flushed with anger over it and therefore unable to control her grip on the statue. Luckily Battista has the wits to catch it before it shatters. After this she decides to return to the others. In the hotel all find that their information is more or less the same. Jack found out that another group in Amsterdam is also searching for information on the Maya’s: we’ve got competition. Simon had planned to spend his time around Anowan just doing some touristy things. While doing this though he found a very import piece of information on Mictlantecuhtli, his wife and a ritual that sounds like the ritual we our looking for. We hear that there is a specialist on this subject that can be found in the Leids Museum of Volkenkunde: Mevr. Dr. Laurens.
The next day Jack and Gatske go to the place that Jack remembers as beeing a meetingplace for his kind: the kinderboerderij in the Amsterdam Forest. In a chat with the bunnies living there Gatske finds that they’re actually thrilled to find Jack back here. He used to read them bedtime stories!! But she is bored by it all very quickly and dissapears into the woods. Jack suddenly remembers that the meeting point was never where he was now but actually at the Rijksmuseum. Not beeing able to find Gatske he goes there alone and arrives at the Southernwing. Although they did not meet Gatske went to the Rijksmuseum as well to see Battista. In the meantime he found the name of the statue but Gatske is more interested in where it came from. It appears to be on loan from London.
Jack finds himself facing a ghoul who wants a name before he can let him into the museum. Finally he remembers the name Pieter Roestromp but he does not remember who it was. Luckily the ghoul doesn’t ask. When standing before the prince Jack is warned by him that we only got three days left. After that Val at least has to be out of the city. Of Maya’s the prince only knows the basics. But Jeffrey Hansons, Jacks clanmate and primogen, is doing research so maybe it is worth to pay him a visit? The ghoul brings him to Jeffrey where he gets intensive therapy and no answer at all! That this guy is involved in the search for information on the Maya’s is something Gatske finds out while she is at Battista’s. He points her to him and tells her some more details about Mictlantecuhtli. It’s mostly an example of how we should avoid doing things. It was fairly bloody for a religion. Battista tells her to watch herself. In not too many words he actually advises her to not get involved any further or tell anything about the statue to her groupmates.
Anowan and Simon take a train to Leiden. After some trouble at the Leids Volkenkundig museum they finally find themselves in an upper middle class neighbourhood before the open door of Dr. Laurens house. As can be expected the body of Dr. Laurens is found in the livingroom. She has been stabbed in her back with a blunt object and has been dead for about one or two hours. The object appears to be a flute with a label attached to it (RMV 2720-1). Simon inspects the house and finds a copy of the same poem we have. At the bottom a womanshand has written: “The wonderer=Mictlantecuhtli”. As Anowan distracts the chauffeur of the taxi that brought them to Leiden Simon has to excert himself to get the body in the trunk but manages it. In the distance sirenes blare.
Back at the hotel we exchange stories. Simon gets a phonecall of a Mr. Schaeffer: “Meet me tomorrow on the bridge over the Amstel at the Amstelhotel. You can find me in the middle of the bridge at 23:00.”
In the meantime Anowan examines the flute. It has been held by someone with glasses (or one glass and one patch actually). Dr. Laurens is spooked, turns around and then someone stabs her. The flute was the property of Dr. Laurens but was on loan to the Volkerenmuseum. The newspapers report the missing and murder of Dr. Laurens. They also mention a neighbourhood search.
Gatske & Jack visit Battista. Now Jack takes up the statue, he faints and let the statue fall just like Gatske did. She now catches it and feels the same as the first time she held it but now she is guarded against it. Jack is brought back by Battista. His first words are “why does he eat hearts” Battista is visibly taken aback by this. He questions Jack who tells him about a vision he had in which he saw Mictlantecuhtli. Battista murmurs something like “I should have shown this earlier to a Malkavian.”
Simon & Val visit the Amstelbridge. In the middle no Mr. Schaeffer can be found. There is a trail of blood though. Following the trail brings them to some bushes and the body of Mr. Schaeffer. Simon strips him and finds a businesscard and a telephone. The last person called by Mr. Schaeffer was Dr. Lauras. The last person who called him was Matti Forex (also a number from Leiden). They hide the body but take the knife. At the hotel Anowan examines the knife. The one who used it was clearly a vampire and had an aura of purple and green. His name: Pietro Hideous (he had clawmarks in his face), about 110 years old. This Pietro has been following Schaeffer for a very long time and is thinking about a huge profit when stabbing. Schaeffer stood in his way to this profit.
Simon takes another trip to Leiden to visit this Matti Forex . He declined the offer from Gatske to come along. Gatske does not take no for an answer and follows him. She has the time of her life watching Simon trying to climb a fence and later watching him questioning Matti. His ways are not to gentle (a pistol to the guys head and drugs to get out the truth). The only information he gets in the end is that the flute had been taken from the museum and that Dr. Laurens was his collegue.
Back at the hotel a surprise awaits: a thick envelope containing a folio and a map. The folio is the CodexTro with almost unreadable notes. In the margin some comments can be read that is a good discription of the ritual of Mictlantecuhtli. The ritual is about the getting of more power out of blood. The map describes the location of Tzental (between Campeche and Chetumal on the Yucatan peninsula).
